Bag closure dispenser and refill therefor



J. H. PAXTON 3,526,337

BAG CLOSURE DISPENSER AND REFILL THEREFOR Sept. 1, 1970 Filed May 5, 1968 IN VEN TOE. 115225 I]. P0X ro/v United States Patent 3,526,337 BAG CLOSURE DISPENSER AND REFILL THEREFOR Jerre H. Paxton, P.O. Box 2098, Yakima, Wash. 98902 Filed May 3, 1968, Ser. No. 726,304 Int. Cl. B65d 83/00; B65h 3/58; G09f 3/18 US. Cl. 221-26 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A column of stiff, flexible, flat clips, each having a bag neck confining aperture accessible through a narrow edge opening, said column being suspended horizontally by a rod extending through said apertures and supported at its opposite ends by a wall bracket, said column being confined on said rod by collars spaced apart on said rod a distance greater than the length of said column by enough space to accommodate twisting, relative to said rod, a single one of said clips, to enlarge the opening of said clip and thereby release said clip for use.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention With the increasing popularity of transparent polyethylene bags for use by customers in collecting merchandise in a supermarket, the problem has been presented to the market owners of providing a means for use by customers in closing said bags so that the bagged merchandise may be easily handled without losing part of the merchandise.

Prior art One of the most popular closures for polyethylene bags in common use today is the Kwik Lok type of flat clip made of sheet polystyrene, each having a bag neck confining aperture access to which is had through a narrow edge opening, and which is easily manipulatable to apply the same to a twisted neck of a polyethylene bag. While willing to provide such closures for use by customers, the market management is faced with the problem of wastage of the clips where these are provided as in open bowls where no restraint is imposed on the customers in their use of the clips.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention seeks to solve the problem met with in the prior art and above described, by packaging Kwik Lok type closures in a column of the same captured by a rod penetrating the apertures of the closures, said column being retained on said rod by collars spaced apart on the rod a distance greater than the length of said column -by enough space to accommodate the twisting, relative to said rod, of a single one of said clips so as to enlarged the opening of said clip and allow it to readily slip from over said rod, thereby releasing said clip for use. Opposite ends of the rod are releasably sup ported by a pair of spring hooks provided on a bracket fixed to the wall right next to the location of a supply of polyethylene bags so that a customer may readily provide himself in rapid succession with one of said bags and one of said clips.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is front elevational view of a preferred embodiment of the invention and illustrates one of said clips sep arated from the clip column and disposed in a free space provided by the invention between one end of the column and an adjacent collar and with said clip partly twisted on said rod and with an arrow indicating a continuation of said twist which will result in enlarging the opening of the clip through which access is had to the aperture thereof to allow the clip to be withdrawn from over the rod thereby releasing said clip for use.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional end view of the invention taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 44 of FIG. 1, this view illustrating in broken lines the position of the separated clip shown in FIG. 1 and showing in full lines the position of the jaws on opposite sides of the opening of said clip when the latter has been further twisted from the full line position in which this is shown in FIG. 1 so as to separate said jaws to the point where said clip may be readily withdrawn from over said rod, thereby releasing said clip for use.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention preferably comprises a closure dispenser 10 which includes a wall bracket 11 and a refill closure package 12.

The bracket is preferably stamped from sheet metal and embodies a flat base 13 having a strengthening flange 14 at its upper end and a lower flange 15 which extends outwardly at a slope of approximately 45 from horizontal. The central portion of the lower flange 15 is removed to leave a pair of downwardly extending metal tongues 16 which are bent upwardly and backwardly to convert these into spring hooks 17.

The wall bracket 11 is adapted to be mounted on a wall 18 by any suitable means and is shown in the drawings as provided with a pressure adhesive layer 19 which may be applied to any suitable area of the back surface of the bracket and covered by neutral waxed parchment prior to the moment when it is desired to mount said bracket on wall 18 whereupon the cover is removed from the pressure adhesive and the latter pressed against the wall 18 when the bracket has been properly positioned for mounting thereon.

The refill closure package 12 comprises a rod 25 which may be the same length as or slightly shorter than the wall bracket 11, this rod having a diameter which permits its end portions to be yieldably slipped into the spring hooks 17 so as to be temporarily retained in these hooks during use of the dispenser 10. Refill package 12 also includes a pair of collars 26 which are preferably triangular in shape and formed of thin spring metal with a central aperture through which the rod 25 may be pressed under substantial force, each collar having spring fingers 28 which dig into the metal of the rod 25 and prevent accidental movement of the collars on the rod 25 after they have been assembled therewith as shown in FIG. 1. The positions in which the collars 26 are placed locates said collars slight distances inwardly from hooks 17 so as to prevent the rod 25 from extending outwardly beyond either of the opposite ends of the wall bracket 11.

Collars 26 also perform the important function of confining on the rod 25 a column 29 of stifi, flexible, flat bag closure clips 30 which are preferably of the well-known Kwik Lok type widely used today in closing polyethylene bags in various merchandise packaging operations. As shown in FIG. 3, each clip 30 comprises a fiat thin sheet of polystyrene or the like, having a heart-shaped bag neck confining aperture 31 near one end thereof, access to said aperture being had through a narrow opening 32 which communicates with one end edge of the clip, outer portions of the edges of said opening diverging at an angle of approximately 60. The material of the clip 30 on opposite sides of the opening 32 is thus divided into a pair of opposed hook-like jaws 33. In manufacturing the refill closure package 12 the column 29 of clips 30 is preferably impaled on the rod 25 with this passing through the apertures 31 of the individual clips 30 prior to pressing the collars 26 onto end portions of the rod 25 to position said collars uniform distances from the ends of the rod and with one of said collars spaced a substantial distance A away from said column thereby leaving the rod 25 in this area exposed to view and free for use in the manipulation of a single one of the clips 30 for the purpose of removing said clip from said rod.

The clips 30 in column 29 are of course free to slide back and forth on the portion of the rod 25 disposed between the collars 26 but when the bracket 11 is properly installed in horizontal position on the wall 18 as shown in FIG. 1 and the refill closure package 12 is installed in said bracket as shown in this view, the closures 30 comprising the column 29 of these embodied in the refill closure package 12 of the dispenser may readily be compacted against one of the collars 26 as shown in FIG. 1 so as to leave an area A of the rod between the other end of the said column and the other collar 26 unencumbered, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, for use in performing the operation of removing for use, an individual one of the clips in column 29. This operation is effected by separating such an individual clip 30 from the end of column 29 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 and while holding this clip in the fingers, twisting the same relative to the rod 25 in the direction of the arrow 34 in FIG. 1 which shifts the jaws 33 of this clip from their coplanar relation, as shown in the separated clip in FIG. 1 and in broken lines in FIG. 4, to a parallel relation, as shown in full lines in the latter view, with the jaws separated by a distance equal to the outside diameter of the rod 25 thereby permitting this clip, which is so held while gripped in the fingers, to be readily withdrawn from engagement with the rod and thus be freed for use on a bag.

While as many as two or three of the clips 30 may be removed from the rod 25 in a single twisting operation, it is not too easy to do this and the dispenser 10 will have the practical effect of preventing wastage of these clips by making some effort at least necessary on the part of the customer in order to remove from the dispenser 10 those clips which he finds necessary for his use in closing bags in his shopping tour.

Whenever the closures confined by a refill closure package 12 are gone, the bare rod 25 remaining in the spring hooks 17 is slipped out of these hooks and replaced by a fresh closure package 12. Thus a continuous supply is maintained from which customers may supply themselves with bag closures as needed without their being tempted to waste these closures.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination:

a column of stiff, flexible, fiat clips each having a bag neck confining aperture and a restrictive edge opening providing access to said aperture and forming a pair of jaws on opposite sides of said opening, said jaws having closely juxtaposed points extending into said aperture at the inner end of said opening;

a rod extending through said apertures of the clips in said column for supporting said column, said jaw points preventing a cli being withdrawn laterally from said rod with said rod normal to the plane of said clip; and

a pair of stop means provided on end portions of said rod so as to trap said column of clips thereon,

there being a space left vacant on said rod between one of said stop means and one end of said column when the latter is packed solid against the other of said stop means, said space being longer than the width of one of said clips, whereby a clip of said column adjacent said space may be readily manually twisted into parallelism with said rod, deflecting said jaws apart, and permitting said clip to be withdrawn from around said rod, thus freeing said clip for use.

2. A combination as recited in claim 1 including short end portions of said rod extending outwardly beyond said stop means; and

a bracket adapted to be fixed on a wall, said bracket having a pair of arms extending therefrom into temporary supporting relation with said rod ends, said bracket arms supporting said rod parallel with and spaced from said wall to provide ample space between said column and said wall for manipulating said clips in removing the same.

3. A combination as recited in claim 2 wherein said bracket arms are provided with spring hooks into which said end portions of said rod may be readily pressed to mounted said rod and column of clips on said bracket or to remove said rod ends from said hooks for replacing said rod, after the clips have been removed therefrom, with another rod on which is packaged a fresh column of said clips.

4. A combination as recited in claim 1 wherein said rod is round in cross section and wherein said stop means comprises:

a pair of constrictive collars axially pressed onto and frictionally engaging said rod to trap said clip column therebetween,

said collars being spaced short distances inward from the rod ends, to facilitate supporting said rod by end portions thereof extending beyond said collars.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,411,252 4/1922 Bassett et al. 1,488,390 3/1924 Glenny 40-195 1,854,275 4/1932 Rumpf et al. 16-87.2 1,878,177 9/1932 Pedersen. 3,286,380 11/1966 Dean 40-19.5 3,408,701 11/1968 Decker 24-73 726,970 5/ 1903 McCarty 248-262 1,709,034 4/ 1929 Nelson. 2,546,720 3/ 1951 Brothers 211-123 X 2,650,722 9/ 1953 Stabile.

FOREIGN PATENTS 936,539 2/1948 France. 1,235,278 5/1960 France.

162,103 3/ 1948 Austria.

SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

